James 4

1 From whence are warres and contentions among you? are they not hence, euen of your pleasures, that fight in your members?

What is the cause of the fighting and quarrelling that goes on among you? Isn’t it to be found in the desires which are always at war within you?

2 Ye lust, and haue not: ye enuie, and desire immoderately, and cannot obtaine: ye fight and warre, and get nothing, because ye aske not.

You crave, yet do not have, so you commit murder, so You covet, yet cannot gain your end. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask.

3 Ye aske, and receiue not, because ye aske amisse, that ye might lay the same out on your pleasures.

You ask, yet do not receive, because you ask for a wrong purpose – to spend what you get on your pleasures.

4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, knowe ye not that the amitie of the world is the enimitie of God? Whosoeuer therefore will be a friend of the world, maketh himselfe the enemie of God.

Unfaithful people! Don’t you know that to be friends with the world means to be at enmity with God? Therefore whoever chooses to be friends with the world makes himself an enemy to God.

5 Doe ye thinke that the Scripture sayeth in vaine, The spirit that dwelleth in vs, lusteth after enuie?

Do you suppose scripture means nothing when it says, “Envy results from the longings of the spirit which God has implanted within you?”

6 But the Scripture offereth more grace, and therefore sayth, God resisteth the proude, and giueth grace to the humble.

But he gives us greater grace; and that is why it says, – “God opposes the haughty, but gives grace to the humble.”

7 Submit your selues to God: resist the deuill, and he will flee from you.

Therefore submit to God. Stand up to the devil, and he will flee from you.

8 Drawe neere to God, and he will drawe neere to you. Clense your handes, ye sinners, and purge your hearts, ye double minded.

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Make your hands clean, you sinners; and your hearts pure, you vacillators!

9 Suffer afflictions, and sorrowe ye, and weepe: let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your ioy into heauinesse.

Grieve, mourn, and lament! Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your happiness to gloom!

10 Cast downe your selues before the Lord, and he will lift you vp.

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

11 Speake not euill one of another, brethren. He that speaketh euill of his brother, or he that condemneth his brother, speaketh euill of ye Law, and condemneth the Lawe: and if thou condemnest the Lawe, thou art not an obseruer of the Lawe, but a iudge.

Do not disparage one another, friends. The person who disparages others, or passes judgment on them, disparages the Law and passes judgment on the Law. But, if you pass judgment on the Law, you are not obeying it, but judging it.

12 There is one Lawgiuer, which is able to saue, and to destroy. Who art thou that iudgest another man?

There is only one lawgiver and judge – he who has the power both to save and to destroy. So then who are you to pass judgment on your neighbour?

13 Goe to now ye that say, To day or to morowe we will goe into such a citie, and continue there a yeere, and bye and sell, and get gaine,

Listen to me, you who say “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a town and spend a year there, doing business and making money,”

14 (And yet ye cannot tell what shalbe to morowe. For what is your life? It is euen a vapour that appeareth for a litle time, and afterward vanisheth away)

yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow! For you are but a puff of smoke that appears for a little while and then vanishes.

15 For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, and, if we liue, we will doe this or that.

Instead you should say “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”

16 But now ye reioyce in your boastings: all such reioycing is euill.

But as it is, you are boasting presumptuously! All such boasting is wicked.

17 Therefore, to him that knoweth how to doe well, and doeth it not, to him it is sinne.

The person, then, who knows what is right but fails to do it – that is sin in them.